Athletes of the Year at World Taekwondo Gala Awards

In a sport that we seldom cover it’s time to mention that the Ivory Coast city is hosting the World Taekwondo Grand Prix Final and World Team Championships.

Britain’s Bianca Walkden was honoured after she successfully defended her World Championship title in the Women’s over 67 kilogram competition in Muju earlier this year.

It marks that she is the first athlete to win all four of the year’s Grand Prix tournaments held in various areas of the globe.

She mentioned to the media “I want to say ‘thank you’ to everyone and I am still shocked, I am so pleased.”

GB performance director Gary Hall had high works of praise for Walkden’s professionalism and her desire to bounce back from the disappointment of only claiming a Bronze at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

He mentioned “Bianca has enjoyed an outstanding year and it’s been an incredible challenge because nobody else in history before had managed what she has achieved in addition to maintaining such a high standard is credit to her and her professionalism.”

Lee Dae-hoon calls South Korea home and he earned the men’s award for the third time out of four editions, following another successful year on the circuit

He was fortunate enough to win the World Championship Gold in the men’s 68kg category event in in Muju, winning all three of the Grand Prix competitions that he attended and competed in.

Coach of the Year was awarded to Serbia’s Dragan Jovic having managed to develop female players who have earned two Olympic medals and two world titles for the country.

Best Kick of the Year was awarded to Moldova’s Aaron Cook for the second time following a spinning heel kick landing on the head of Russia’s Anton Kotkov at the Moscow Grand Prix event.

Best Member National Association of the Year went to South Korea after successfully hosting the biggest ever World Championships in history.

In addition they also managed to grab the National Team Award after winning the most medals at the event and during the Grand Prix season.

They were closely followed by Russia and Britain, who came second and third respectively.

Best Continental Union of the Year was awarded to World Taekwondo Africa following a successful hosting of a Grand Prix event in Morocco’s capital Rabat, as well as the Grand Prix Final in Abidjan.

Female and Male Referee’s of the Year went to Lebanon’s Julie Dib and Belgium’s Abdelkhalek Chbibi and full congratulations are in order for their overall control and professionalism on and off the mat.

The awards gala featured several local performances, including from dance troupes and singers as the Ivory Coast showed its culture.

World Taekwondo President Chungwon Choue congratulated everyone with the 2017 World Championships, the rising role of Africa and the charitable efforts of the Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation.

Congratulations to everyone involved with the events and continued success!!!